Basic Double Crochet Hats: Preemie-Adult

-This post is sponsored by mormon.org and the #LightTheWorld Christmas Campaign. All ideas and opinions are my own-

I love Christmastime. It is one of my favorite times of the year. There is so much wonderful stuff about Christmas time. It is a time to focus on Christ and his birth, it is a time to think about others and a time of giving. I think it seems like in general people tend to be more charitable and giving around Christmas but I also think that sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the business of the season and get lost in all of the other stuff that is going on so that in the end maybe we don't do as much as we would like. This year the LDS church, which I happen to be a member of, has a Christmas campaign that is encouraging everyone, regardless of religion, to participate in a month of service. They are using #LightTheWorld to share all of the acts of service being done around the world. If you want to participate through social media you can use that hashtag to share the things that you do. Beginning on December 1st they are starting 25 ways in 25 days, 25 ways to serve over the course of 25 days ending with Christmas. If you go to their site mormon.org, they have an advent calendar with different themes or ideas for each day beginning with a worldwide day of service on December 1st. Some of the ideas are really simple, writing a letter, or making a phone call, small things that can brighten someones day. Others may be bigger things that require a little more planning but you can do anything that you want. There is no specific thing you have to do, just a reminder to focus on being Christlike and serving and helping those around us.

Mini Nativity- Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus

-Product and compensation for this post provided by Fairfield World, all opinions and ideas are my own. This post contains affiliate links-

One of my favorite crochet projects that I have ever made was the Nativity that I made last year. It was a project that I had been thinking about for a long time but I just kept not starting it. Then last fall I was participating in a craft blogger competition and I made it all the way to the finale. Prior to that each week in the competition had a specific theme but the finale project could be anything. I really wanted to crochet something because I felt that that would be most representative of me as a blogger and crafter. I tried to think of something that would be big enough and exciting enough for a finale and I thought of this idea I had had for a while to make a nativity and decided to go for it. It was kind of crazy because I only had about a week to get a project done and I wanted to make several pieces but I did it and I loved the way it turned out. It ended up winning me the competition too, which was a nice bonus.

Merry Christmas Around the World Sign

-This post is sponsored by Cricut, all ideas and opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links-

I have had my Cricut for less than a year now but it has become one of my favorite things when I want to make a quick project. I love that it is so easy to use and that I can make pretty much anything I want to. Before getting my Cricut I had never used one before but I have felt like it was really easy to learn to use and since then I have been able to make so many things, vinyl signs, shirts with iron on, paper crafts, and so much more.

Faux Leather Hair Bows

“This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of SoCozy. All opinions are my own and not edited by the sponsor”

I have 3 little girls ages 8, 4, and 3 which means lots of hair that needs done. All of them have such different hair, we have thick hair, thin hair, curly, straight, and somewhere in between. When I was little I had very curly hair, my mom used to call it naturally crazy hair. I think a couple of my girls have inherited my naturally crazy hair. The older two both have or had curly hair, Eliza's has straightened out a lot as she has gotten older but Lucy's is still pretty curly. I love Lucy's curly hair but she hates letting me do anything with it because it always gets so tangly. In fact, when I am doing the girl's hair she will grab the brush, run off and hide it, then come back ready for me to do her hair. I try to be gentle but she still hates getting her hair brushed. When I had the opportunity to do a post with SoCozy kids hair care products I immediately thought of Lucy. I was excited to try out some of their products to see how they worked on her hair, as well as the other girls. They sent me a couple of products to try out so on Sunday when we were getting the girls ready for church I decided to give them a try. I also made them some pretty new faux leather bows with my Cricut. They only took a few minutes to make, I ended up making more that morning because they all wanted certain colors.

Scandinavian Snowflake Christmas Pillow

My second Christmas pillow I just posted on the Fairfield World site a couple days ago. For this pillow I decided to try out corner to corner crochet. I have seen it around a lot lately, it seems to be pretty popular right now to do graphs in crorner to corner and I have been wanting to try it for a while. I thought a Scandinavian type design would work really well for a graph and since it only uses 2 colors I thought it would be a pretty easy place to start.

Classic Granny Square Christmas Pillow

I have been working on some Christmas projects over the last couple of weeks including some Christmas pillows. I have posted the patterns for a couple of them on the Fairfield World website and now I am finally getting around to posting about them here with links to the patterns. The first one I originally posted a couple of weeks ago. It is a classic granny square done in Christmas colors but if you aren't looking for a Christmas pillow this one would work great in any color.

Quiet Activity Bags for Kids

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #RitzFilledNotHangry #CollectiveBias

Last month I made some trick or treat bags using some colorful canvas bags and adding vinyl to the front. The bags that I got came in packs of a dozen so I had a lot leftover and immediately I started thinking about what I could use some of the extra bags for. One Sunday we were getting ready to head out the door to church and I was grabbing a few small toys and books and stuff to keep the kids busy and it got me thinking, there are often times that I need to keep the kids quietly occupied while we are out somewhere whether that be church or a doctor's appointment or even just in the car. I had the idea to use some of those extra bags that I had to make some quiet activity bags that I could fill up with some small toys, a notebook and crayons, maybe some small snacks. Something to keep the kids busy other than electronics.